StockNews.com Downgrades Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) to Sell

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) was downgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report released on Thursday.

A number of other research analysts have also commented on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Cleveland-Cliffs from $15.00 to $13.50 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Cleveland-Cliffs from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Cleveland-Cliffs from $18.00 to $12.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.56.

Cleveland-Cliffs Price Performance

CLF stock traded down $0.60 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $13.34. 23,183,870 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,185,830. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.57. Cleveland-Cliffs has a 1-year low of $10.21 and a 1-year high of $22.97. The company has a market cap of $6.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -13.75 and a beta of 1.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE:CLF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The mining company reported ($0.33) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.31) by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $4.57 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.72 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a negative net margin of 2.31% and a negative return on equity of 0.58%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 18.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Cleveland-Cliffs will post -0.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 54.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,906,597 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $244,794,000 after acquiring an additional 5,621,797 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 49.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,093,632 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $93,172,000 after acquiring an additional 2,027,757 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 23.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,597,662 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $86,148,000 after acquiring an additional 1,069,907 shares in the last quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its holdings in Cleveland-Cliffs by 13.8% during the first quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 3,374,716 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $76,741,000 after acquiring an additional 410,182 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Drexel Morgan & Co. raised its stake in shares of Cleveland-Cliffs by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Drexel Morgan & Co. now owns 3,200,395 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $40,869,000 after purchasing an additional 116,400 shares during the period. 67.68% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Cleveland-Cliffs

Cleveland-Cliffs is the largest flat-rolled steel company and the largest iron ore pellet producer in North America. The company is vertically integrated from mining through iron making, steelmaking, rolling, finishing and downstream with hot and cold stamping of steel parts and components. The company was formerly known as Cliffs Natural Resources Inc and changed its name to Cleveland-Cliffs Inc in August 2017.